Student Supervisors

A one-stop-shop for everything you need to know as a student supervisor at DePauw.

For comprehensive information regarding supervising students at DePauw, please click here to view the Supervisor's handbook

hiring process for supervisor

With the rollout of the new Workday system, please contact Interim Assistant Director of Student Employment, Jennifer Clarke, to learn the new hiring process.

studentemployment@depauw.edu
765-658-4281

General FAQ

If a student is new to student employment at DePauw, they are NEVER allowed to start working before their paperwork has been finished. Student employment will always notify you once they have cleared; if you’ve not gotten that notification, do not start them. If you’re unsure, reach out to student employment. It is on you as a student supervisor to avoid a situation where a student ends up breaking the rules because they were started before they should have been. There are never any exceptions to this rule; we CANNOT have students working who aren’t legally cleared to do so.
If you have a student who is not eligible for work study (FWS or DWS) and your job is not considered skilled/specialized, you are not able to hire that student.
If you want to seek an exception to classify your job as skilled/specialized, please reach out to student employment.
Students are only permitted to have 2 jobs; if a student has more than 2, they will be asked to adjust their job load accordingly. This might result in the resignation of one of your student employees.
Students who have worked on campus before will still have to apply through Workday; they will not have to redo any paperwork
Workday Student Job Board acts as a regular job board
Students are responsible for inputting their own hours into Workday realtime and should not be entering hours post-shift. While you as a supervisor must approve those hours, you should not be recording them on behalf of your student who is simply not doing so. You should only be editing hours if they are incorrect.
If you have informed your student that they need to input their hours and they continue not doing so, inform student employment immediately. A meeting will be scheduled with the student to warn them that if they do not start inputting their own hours, further disciplinary action, up to and including their suspension from student employment at DPU, may be taken.
It is your responsibility as a student supervisor to make sure hours are correctly input into Workday and approved by the deadline. If you have issues approving or getting a student to input their own hours, please reach out to student employment.
It is imperative that students only perform the jobs that are included in the job description. Supervisors are not permitted to have students complete personal tasks for them while on the clock. Some examples include; babysitting, picking up kids from daycare, grocery shopping, ETC. Student employees are to carry out the tasks included in their job descriptions pertaining to DePauw functions; they are not personal assistants and should NEVER be treated as such.
Unless a student is specifically hired in a teaching related position (STEM guide, tutor, ETC) they should not be participating in activities related to other student’s educations (proctoring exams, teaching or tutoring in a professors’ absence, ETC.)
It is expected that student supervisors at DePauw will assume full responsibility for any and all necessary training for their students to thrive in their positions. If you are a supervisor and need the basics of supervising a student employee at DePauw, please reach out to studentemployment@depauw.edu to schedule a training session.

wage guidelines

After reviewing job descriptions, student employment will be responsible for assigning a wage tier to each student position by analyzing the duties of the position.
The current wage tiers are as follows: Tier 1: $9 an hour for jobs with a lower specialization level; Tier 2: $10 an hour for jobs with an intermediate specialization level; and Tier 3: $11 an hour for jobs with a higher specialization level.
If you feel that the wage tier assigned to your position does not accurately reflect the duties of the position, you may request a review by contacting studentemployment@depauw.edu.

Office guidelines

As mentioned in the student portion, there are no official office guidelines that stretch across every department on campus, aside from attendance, punctuality, and conduct at work.
This is because every department is unique and has their own set of needs. What works in terms of dress code for the Hubbard Center may not work for athletics. What works in terms of homework on the clock might not be the same for the CDI as it is for the post office.
Therefore, it is up to individual departments to determine what their stance on these issues (dress code, cell phone usage, and homework on the clock) is and to make sure that their students are aware Student Employment Handbook 9 of it. It is imperative to ensure that students are aware of your expectations of them for progressive discipline reasons.

Progressive Discipline policy

The progressive discipline policy has 5 stages. They are as follows:

Counseling (having a discussion with your student regarding corrective action to their behavior)
Verbal Warning (having a discussion with your student letting them know that the behavior discussed in counseling has not improved and that this is to be considered a verbal warning. You will document this by putting the minutes of the discussion in an email sent to that student after the discussion. CC student employment on this email.)
Written Warning (The written warning will be an email sent directly to the student letting them know that their behavior has still not improved and that this is to be considered a written warning. At this point, they should also be informed that if their behavior does not improve, further disciplinary action may be taken. CC student employment on this email.)
Final Warning (This is an email sent directly to the student informing them that this is their final warning. If their behavior does not improve immediately, disciplinary action WILL be taken. CC student employment on this email.)
Further Action/Termination (In most cases, the final action will be termination; just make sure you touch base with student employment if you have anything else in mind.)

It is VERY important that supervisors follow every step of the progressive discipline policy and document every stage past counseling, barring any student behavior that is significant enough to accelerate the policy to further disciplinary action, up to and including termination. (This includes 3 no call/no shows.)
This might be uncomfortable sometimes, but to ensure we are covered legally, it is very necessary.
It is also critical to communicate to students that there are consequences for their actions. If a student has an attendance issue, it is not enough to remind them that that they are expected to come to work; you MUST also tell them that if they are absent again, there will be further disciplinary action, up to and including termination.
It is very important that this is communicated to them throughout this process so that if they do reach the termination stage, they aren’t shocked/cannot claim that they didn’t know this was a possibility.
In many cases, problematic behavior can be curbed with the use of a performance review

performance reviews

Performance reviews are a way of developing your students professionally and making sure that your department is getting what it needs from your student workers.
Often, behavioral issues can be addressed and solved with the usage of a performance review.
Performance reviews should be conducted every semester.
First, the supervisor should have their students fill out a self-evaluation. Then, the supervisor will fill out theirs. Then, the supervisor and the student should meet to discuss the results and address anything that needs changing. (Supervisors who employ high numbers of students do not have to meet with their students unless corrective behavioral action is needed)
The template for the self-evaluation can be found here; the supervisor evaluation can be found here.

Terminations

All student terminations must be run by HR/student employment before proceeding.
The steps of the progressive discipline policy must have been followed and documented/sent to student employment, barring any student behavior that is significant enough to accelerate the policy to further disciplinary action, up to and including termination. (This includes 3 no call/no shows.)
Depending on the severity of the circumstances, the termination may occur via email or an in-person discussion at student employment with the student, the supervisor and student employment present.
Depending on the severity of the situation, student employment might have to document the offense(s) that led to termination and inform potential future supervisors of the circumstances surrounding the termination of the student in question.